The papers in this volume are a selection from those given at the 1999 BAAL Annual Meeting, held at Edinburgh, whose theme was 'Change and Continuity in Applied Linguistics'. As well as offering a varied sample of current applied linguistics research, they provide a stimulating discussion of a wide range of views on fundamental questions about the nature and development of the discipline: What is applied linguistics? Where has it come from? What are its interests, data and methods? Who is it for? And how is it changing, especially in its views of language, learning, society and teaching?